


In Shadows Rise

by Chisotahn, Frigoris



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Minor Character Death, Multi, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:23:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2391581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chisotahn/pseuds/Chisotahn, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frigoris/pseuds/Frigoris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything fell apart in early December, and Souji left Inaba behind, only to find that the town and everyone in it began to fade from everyone's memory except his own. Desperate for answers, Souji has no choice but to make his way back through the relentless fog and face the truth before it's too late.... </p><p>Spoilers for December and the True Ending. Trigger warning for mild gore and horror elements.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Forget

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started out as a prompt on the dear departed Persona 4 kinkmeme on LiveJournal, long long ago. I (Chisotahn) wrote out one scene of it before getting distracted by other things. Five years later, I found that one scene... and something very, very different from what I'd originally intended came out.
> 
> So I started writing it on [my fanfic tumblr](http://ikuze-aibou.tumblr.com) as a series of short, unpolished pieces based on [typetrigger](http://www.typetrigger.com) prompts. After hitting six parts and thoroughly falling in love with the concept, I decided it was worth going back and revamping the earlier parts into something more coherent and complete and bringing everything over to the AO3. Also, joining up with my partner in crime and life, Frigoris, to write something again in earnest! Together, we come up with brilliant ideas, I provide the words, and she polishes them up. And thus, this story.
> 
> If you read the early version on tumblr, I highly recommend re-reading it as posted here, as scenes have been expanded and added. Going forward, this fic will be updated here and on tumblr simultaneously. We will also be providing bonus updates on tumblr (which will be linked in the notes of the relevant chapters here) with artwork and other fun things.
> 
> Enjoy!

He hadn’t expected everything to be over so soon, but there it was.

Souji looked around his room one last time. As soon as he walked out the door it wouldn’t be his anymore, and this house would cease to be home… but at this point, he was almost relieved. The house had grown too quiet, too thick with grief, and the fog pressed up against the windowpanes muffled everything. Maybe a fresh start was exactly what he needed. He was supposed to be good at those, after all. 

Before he left, Souji put a note down on the desk - just a small thing, a thank-you note for his uncle, who’d taken him in and done his best to take care of him despite everything that had happened. The thought of leaving Dojima here alone made him feel a bit guilty, but maybe it would be good. He wouldn’t be a burden and a reminder any more. 

Souji shouldered his bag and closed the door behind him, letting out a slow breath. So many doors had been closed lately. So many endings. At least there were only a few left. 

His uncle was waiting for him downstairs, though he didn’t say anything until Souji had put on his shoes and his coat. When he did speak, his voice was rough and weary. “Ready?”

Souji nodded, not entirely sure what to say. There was so much he could talk about, but the only thing he thought he could get out without hurting them both was “thank you.” 

Dojima just nodded, holding out one hand to Souji. “I’m glad you were here,” he said, enveloping Souji’s hand in his own before pulling his nephew in for a quick hug. “You take care, okay?”

“You too,” Souji said. Dojima’s expression twitched into the faintest possible version of a smile before he opened the door and stepped back. Souji glanced at him and nodded, once, taking the step over the threshold.

And then that door was sliding shut behind him, the lock clicking into place. Souji sighed and walked out into the foggy street, zipping his coat closed against the pervasive chill. Despite everything that had happened, he still didn’t entirely want to leave… and yet he was perversely glad for his parents’ decision to return a month earlier than planned, because that meant the choice had been taken away from him. Nothing he could do. Simple.

The entire town seemed subdued as he walked, though he figured some of that was his own mood affecting his perceptions; everything felt bittersweet, laden with once-fond memories that now hurt more than helped. Souji detoured into the shopping district to hang one last ema at the shrine, a prayer for his uncle’s healing. There was no sign of the fox. 

He paused, too, at the place where the door to the Velvet Room had once been, reaching out one tentative hand and finding nothing but fog. It had vanished the day Namatame’s body had been found on the roof of the hospital, nestled into the curve of a satellite dish. At the time, he’d taken it as weary confirmation that despite his own misgivings, his friends had made the right decision. Now…

… well, now he was leaving, so he didn’t have to worry about it any more, right?

One or two of the shopkeepers called out to him as he walked past, he offered them as much of a smile as he could muster and a quick wave. He sped up as he approached the station, not for fear of missing the train, but because he was ready for this to be over, this cold, grey walk through everything that had broken. 

They were waiting for him, at least - Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Rise, and Naoto, smiling sadly at his approach. Just the five of them. None of them had been able to find Teddie after Nanako’s death, despite their best efforts both in Inaba and inside the TV world; Souji hoped the bear was simply dealing with his grief in his own way. And Yosuke… Souji shoved away the pang of guilt at Yosuke’s absence. He hadn’t told the other boy that he was leaving. They hadn’t even talked since their fight in the hospital the night Nanako died, and Souji had mostly convinced himself that just leaving was the best choice. Let it be over rather than poking through the ashes of their relationship, if you could even call it that. 

Mostly convinced. Right. 

“All set to go, senpai?” Rise asked quietly, putting one hand on his arm.

“Yeah, I think so,” Souji replied, taking a deep breath and looking at them all. “Thank you all for everything.” 

Kanji gave Souji a rough hug, and that was their cue to surround him, wrapping him up in their affection one last time. Souji did his best to return the embraces, though hugging five people at once was difficult under the best circumstances, and the growing sound of the approaching train was a relief. “Thank you,” he repeated, taking a step back and shouldering his bag once more. “I won’t forget you all. I promise.”

“Come back and visit some time,” Yukiko said, wiping at her eyes. “You can always stay at the Inn.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Souji said, not willing to make a promise he might not be able to keep. The train came to a stop, its doors sliding open, and he took a deep breath. “I’m off.”

A chorus of goodbyes answered him, and he stepped onto the train and took a seat, lifting one hand to wave at them as the doors closed and the train began to move. A moment later and they were gone, completely obscured by the fog, and Souji slumped, letting out a small sigh. 

It was done. It was over. And he still felt numb, but that was fine with him - he’d take numbness over active pain, over the grief that had worn holes in him and his family. Souji sat back and stared out the window, letting the rocking movement of the train lull him into a comfortable stupor. 

The train was twenty, maybe thirty minutes out of Yasoinaba Station when it emerged from the thick blanket of fog, trailing tendrils that were quickly burned away by the sun. Souji blinked at the sky in a daze, squinting against the too-bright light. _It’s so blue._

_Was it always that blue?_

He sat there for a long moment, breathing in air instead of fog until his eyes widened with a sudden jolt of panic, sharp and more real than anything he’d felt in months. The adrenaline burned through him, shaking away the pervading numbness that had settled over him for so long. 

The sky had always been that blue. _Had._ Past tense. The sun was supposed to be that bright. Also past tense. His grip on the armrests tightened convulsively as he processed the implications. 

How long had it been since he’d last seen the world unobscured by fog?

Souji stood up in a rush, pressing his hands against the window glass and trying his best to look back at the receding horizon. The Inaba region was a yellow-gray smudge, a smear of faded color and little else. He could feel the eyes of the other passengers on him as they started to stare. 

He forced himself to pull away from the window and sank back down, trying not to shake. He honestly hadn’t thought about it until now, hadn’t even questioned the fog’s constant presence, even though it had been there every day for almost three months. It had seemed… almost fitting, a proper reflection of his grief and the distance he felt from everyone around him. He hadn’t cared at all. Not until now.

Souji took a deep breath and let it out slowly, deliberately, trying to calm himself. Maybe it was just… just normal to feel this way. Maybe it had nothing to do with the fog. He’d never lost somebody before, not like this. And the way everything had just fallen apart - well, he could rationalize that too, probably.

But as the train carried him further and further from Inaba, he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something had gone badly, _deeply_ wrong.

………………………

The city helped, a little. It was vibrant, alive, filled with noise and distractions; his parents greeted him with hugs, ushering him home from the station in a cab and leading him up to yet another new apartment, another new room. He’d always been open to fresh starts, and he’d done it so many times that routine carried him through. He could unpack without thinking too much about it, without looking too closely at the items he was holding and the memories they carried. By bedtime, he’d managed to unpack his clothes and one box of books, and he curled up in his futon with a weary sigh, feeling some of the tension flow away. There was something to be said for new beginnings, at least. 

And yet sleep refused to come, despite the fact that he was exhausted from the day’s travels, the farewells, the sudden presence of his parents who wanted to know everything about his unfinished year in Inaba because it hadn’t seemed appropriate to ask at Nanako’s funeral. 

Eventually, frustrated, he picked up his phone, squinting against the glare of its screen. He scrolled down his contact list, at all the friends he’d made and people he’d come to know; the selection came to rest on _Yosuke Hanamura_ and stayed there for a long time.

… No. Best to leave it alone.

Souji sighed and turned his phone off, putting it to one side and tugging the blanket over himself. But he stared into the dark for quite a while longer before sleep claimed him at last. 

……………………

_He’d fallen asleep on the couch again, watching some shitty late-night drama that droned interminably into the air. The sudden silence woke him, the transition from babble to the faint hiss of static, and he opened his eyes to a yellow flicker that painted the walls with distortion. He sat up slowly, one hand reaching automatically for the gun he could no longer carry. The television was lit up, the pixelated halo jagging out beyond the screen and into the air, a slow stream of fog flowing over the edges to pool on his floor._

_And there she was, that face he’d seen too many times since December, pale skin, red eyes, that smile she seemed to save just for him, the one that excited and terrified him at the same damn time. “What?” he asked, carefully, because he’d already learned that defying her came with a price that he wasn’t willing to pay._

_“It seems you are the only one left,” she said, smiling at him. She lifted one hand, and her fingertips came through the screen, reaching for him. He stumbled off the couch towards her, unable to resist the look in her eyes, and she cupped his cheek without hesitation,_ fuck, _her touch so soft and perfect._

_“What shall I do?” she asked, and he caught the faintest whiff of something foul, like a decaying corpse, but her touch was impossible to pull away from. “What shall the fate of this place be?”_

_He licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry - but he knew, oh he knew, even if he didn’t entirely understand. “Take it all,” he managed, leaning into her hand. “Burn the shithole down.”_

_She smiled._

…………………………………

Souji didn’t need to think too much about his first day in a new school any more. It had happened so many times already, the routine long since ground into his bones. Just introduce himself politely, smile, take his seat, talk calmly and pleasantly to his new classmates afterwards. The script never really changed - even the teachers’ words were near-identical across the board, if you didn’t count King Moron. 

But as Souji stood in front of the class, face set in the usual transfer-student smile, the teacher got as far as “-he’s transferred here from…” before pausing. For a moment, Souji thought she’d forgotten, but when he glanced over at her there was a look of utter confusion on her face, one that was starting to spread to the students as well. 

"Inaba," Souji said, filling in the gap. "Yasogami High, in Inaba."

The teacher blinked, then smiled as if nothing had happened. “So let’s all welcome him, okay?”

Souji managed to bow politely and murmur the appropriate pleasantries, but he couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy as he made his way to his seat. It was entirely possible that the teacher had just forgotten and not recovered very well. It wasn’t like Inaba was that well known, especially not here, in another prefecture entirely.

Despite his internal reassurances, Souji found it difficult to focus as the lecture began. The teacher’s style was engaging, her words confident, and with every sentence he found it harder to believe that she would react to forgetting a town’s name in such a strange way. It was all he could think about, and when the lunch bell rang he got up and headed out of the room without talking to anyone. 

He settled on the school roof as the most likely place to be left alone; the wind was still raw with winter’s chill, and he huddled up against a wall, closing his eyes and breathing in the cool air. It was so different from Inaba - he could hear the distant sounds of honking cars and smell the tang of exhaust. He kept breathing deeply until the fear drained away, because really, what the hell _could_ happen? He was just being ridiculous. He had to let go.

Souji stretched and got to his feet. He’d go back to class, listen carefully, apologize to his classmates for running off, make things right. He couldn’t let the past year keep eating at him like this.

When he went back down the stairs, he ran into a group of his classmates in the hallway. “Hello - I’m sorry for running off like that,” he said with a smile, extending his hand. “I just needed to check on something. Moving leaves a lot of loose ends, I guess.”

One of the other boys grinned at him. “Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s Seta-kun, right?”

Another girl joined the group, a curious expression on her face. “Where did you say you’d transferred from?” 

………………………

It kept happening. 

At first, it was relatively easy to ignore. His new classmates seemed to ask where he’d come from a little more often than he was used to, though he rationalized that it was just because a school this size in such a big city got a lot of transfer students, maybe too many to keep track of. But when Kato-kun asked him where he’d lived before for the third time in a week, Souji’s gut twisted up and calming himself down was harder than ever. 

It was like the word _Inaba_ couldn’t stay in people’s heads, like it went in one ear and out the other no matter how much he repeated it. Such a small thing, really, but it wore at him. It seemed silly to text his friends for reassurance, but after Kato-kun asked him where he’d transferred from _again_ , Souji gave in. 

_Hey, this is kind of stupid, but everything’s okay, right?_ Just one sentence, copied to everyone on the team except Yosuke, because while he hoped Yosuke was okay too, he didn’t want to run the risk of triggering a deluge of frustration. Not now. 

But there was no response - not that evening, nor the next day, not from any of them. He tried again, then again. Still nothing.

He didn’t sleep well that night. The next day, Souji gave up on texting entirely, calling Chie on his way home from school. The phone rang for a moment, and that was reassuring - but instead of Chie or even her voicemail, he got only an apologetic recording. _Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again_ , and Souji stopped in his tracks, another student nearly smacking into him. 

He hit redial.

_Your call cannot be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again._

Souji jammed his phone into his pocket and took off running, and he didn’t stop until he reached his building. He ended up in his room, pacing, the phone pressed tightly to his ear as he called Yukiko, then Naoto, then Kanji, then Rise, then worked his way through the rest of his contacts. Ai, Daisuke, Kou, Ayane, even the daycare coordinator and Shu’s mother, and every time the phone droned _your call cannot be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again._

Souji dialed Dojima’s number, his hands shaking. 

_Your call cannot be completed as dialed-_

The phone fell to the floor, and Souji buried his head in his hands. Maybe the cell network was down in the Inaba region. Maybe there was a problem in the network here. Surely there was some kind of rational explanation- 

The sound of the front door closing snapped him out of his panicked reverie, and Souji hurried out to greet his mother, hoping that he didn’t look too obviously emotional. “Hello, dear,” she said, smiling at him as she hung up her coat. “How was school?”

“Oh, uh… fine,” Souji managed. “I… I was just thinking about my last school, actually. About everyone in _Inaba,_ ” he said, stressing the word. “Thinking about my uncle. Have you heard from him lately?”

She gave him a puzzled look, and that strange confusion passed over her face like a shadow. “Your… your uncle?” she said, very slowly, her gaze losing focus.

Souji’s heart plunged. “Yes, my uncle? Your brother? _Ryotaro Dojima?_ ” he said, desperately. “I spent the last year with him?” 

"Ryotaro… oh, yes, of course, but…" The confusion deepened, and her expression smoothed into something blank and limp and utterly terrifying. Souji took a step back and nearly knocked over an end table. The sudden sharp clatter seemed to awaken her from her trance. “Oh! Oh-” Her hands fluttered to her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Souji, what were you saying?”

"… nothing," Souji said, his stomach twisting itself into a hard knot. "I’m… I’m going to go study." He hurried out before she could respond, retreating to his room and locking the door before leaning against it heavily, head bowed.

He couldn’t ignore it any more. He could rationalize away his own feelings, could explain the repeated questions and the texts and calls going awry, but there was nothing he could imagine that could account for his mother barely remembering her own brother’s existence. But Souji himself still remembered Inaba. He could still say the name. He could still remember everything. 

And that meant he had to be the one to go.

………………

Souji packed that night, emptying his school bag of textbooks and loading it up with clothing and supplies instead, packing his old glasses, wrapping up his sheathed katana and hoping it would pass for a simple kendo practice sword. He didn’t have access to the Velvet Room anymore, but he still felt the Personas in his mind, their presences just as anxious as his own. It would have to be enough.

His parents always left for work before he left for school. It was a simple matter to leave a note on his bed and go to the train station instead, where the ticket machine staunchly refused to sell him a ticket to Yasoinaba Station but _would_ give him something for one station down the line. That, too, would have to be enough.

Souji let out a long sigh as the doors hissed shut and the train began to move. Finally, finally, he felt like he was going in the right direction.

_I’m coming. Wait for me._

_Please, please wait for me._


	2. Disappear

It would take hours to get to Inaba under the best circumstances, starting with higher-speed inter-city trains and gradually downgrading to the tiny local line that served Yasoinaba Station. Four train changes, at least, and Souji spent them all fretting, turning his phone over and over in his hands and debating whether or not to try calling everyone again, just in case proximity to Inaba itself made some sort of difference.

He gave in halfway through the third train ride, turning towards the window as he pressed his phone to his ear, struggling to keep his expression neutral as _your call cannot be completed as dialed_ droned over and over and over. At last he put the phone away because burning through the battery wasn’t going to help.

The closer he got, the more uneasy he became; he could barely sit still on that last tiny train, the familiar local that he’d taken so many times. Souji forced himself to stay seated though his nervous energy kept escaping in little tics - a rapidly tapping foot, a drumming of fingers against the window. The oncoming horizon was a smear of fog, drawing closer and closer, inexorable.

He held his breath out of reflex as the fog bank swallowed the train, bracing himself against an expected deceleration that never came. Souji stared out the windows at bile-yellow nothingness, the other passengers silent, swaying in time with the train’s movements in eerie unison. At one point, the train’s speakers belched out something that might have been a station announcement, but it was garbled and composed mostly of static.

And then the air cleared, fog tendrils reluctantly giving way to the radiant blue sky that had so startled him when he’d left Inaba last month. The odd tension that had held the train in thrall seemed to relax, and the passengers began talking quietly again as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Souji swallowed, hard. He hadn’t even seen Yasoinaba Station, just the unrelenting fog.

The train came to a stop at the station _after_ Inaba, and Souji hurried out into the too-bright sun, inhaling the scent of country air. He paused in the middle of the platform, the other passengers streaming around him, then headed for the stationmaster’s office. “Excuse me, but is Yasoinaba Station closed for repairs?” he asked, keeping his voice as steady as he could manage.

The stationmaster gave him an odd look, that same expression of confusion slipping over the man’s features. “There’s no station on this line by that name. Are you lost?” 

“... I’m sorry, I must have been mistaken,” Souji said quickly. “Thank you.” He nodded politely at the stationmaster and hurried towards the waiting area, trying unsuccessfully to calm the pounding of his heart. Even the map on the station wall was frighteningly unhelpful. The section where Inaba should have been was impossible to focus on, and more than once Souji found himself looking somewhere else entirely, like the advertisement next to the map or even the platform floor. The effect remained even when Souji put on his glasses, though the compulsion didn’t seem quite as strong. It was as if a haze hovered over Inaba even in printed form, and it was rapidly giving him a headache, his eyes watering from the strain. 

After spending a few minutes sitting down and rubbing at his temples in a vain attempt to make the headache dissipate, Souji shouldered his bag and headed out of the station. He turned in Inaba’s general direction, walking as close to the line of the train tracks as he could get. It wasn’t far, maybe ten minutes, before he reached the edge of the town and the fields beyond, the train tracks running along a raised embankment.

He stopped there and tried the phone one last time, cycling through every number in his address book. When he got to Yosuke’s name, he hesitated a moment, then pressed _call._

_Your call cannot be completed as dialed-_

Souji tucked his phone away and hopped the fence at the end of the road, heading out into the fields along the tracks. It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk, the air warm and stirred by a gentle breeze, but his focus was entirely on the fog on the horizon.

… _Almost_ entirely. Part of him had known Yosuke’s phone wouldn’t be any different than the others, but the confirmation ratcheted his anxiety up even higher. After that fight in December, he’d promised himself that he’d let things between him and Yosuke lie where they’d fallen, and yet… 

Souji was pretty sure the last thing he’d said to Yosuke had been _“do what you want,”_ hissed through clenched teeth as he stormed out of Namatame’s hospital room. And if he found the worst in Inaba - even though at this point he couldn’t imagine what _the worst_ might be - he didn’t want those words to have been the last thing he ever told Yosuke. 

The sun grew wan and dim as the fog occluded its light, leaving him feeling cold and clammy. Familiar shapes reared up through the fog, silhouettes he recognized. The power lines, great steel behemoths marching into the distance, apparently unaffected. The first bend of the Samegawa, where he had to detour to a pedestrian bridge a kilometer away from the train trestle. All the expected landmarks were present, if indistinct, but he heard no cars, saw no people, felt no signs of life other than plants and the distant clacking of the occasional train.

Souji wasn’t sure when he passed the boundary into Inaba proper. He felt as if he’d been walking forever, an endless trudge of footsteps in the mist. His feet and shoulders ached powerfully, and when he pulled his phone out to try calling again it blinked no service at him. The fog swirled around him like a living thing.

At last, the faint silhouette of the station appeared in the fog along the other side of train tracks. Souji stopped walking as one more train went past, then took a deep breath. He freed his sword from its wrappings, just in case, then vaulted over the fence and onto the tracks, his shoes scraping on the gravel between the railroad ties. One track - two - and he hit the platform, scrabbling at the edge for a moment before he was able to pull himself up to safety.

Souji just lay there for a moment, catching his breath. Above him was a familiar sign, swaying gently in the fog’s currents. _Yasoinaba._

He’d made it.


	3. Sniff

He’d half expected the streets to be deserted, just like the fields - empty of people, empty of animals and insects. But as Souji stepped out of the train station he realized instantly how wrong he’d been.

The streets were populated by Shadows.

Not Shadows like anything he’d ever seen in the TV world - these were shambling blots of darkness, their shapes asymmetrical, only vaguely humanoid. Souji quickly slipped behind one of the vending machines for cover as he watched the Shadows, trying to calm the frantic beating of his heart. Their movements seemed vaguely purposeful, going from building to building in patterns that would have seemed normal had they been human.

Souji shuddered and slowly inched out from behind the vending machines, trying to make as little sound as possible - but the nearest Shadow to him, about 10 meters away, raised what might have been its face and scented the air. 

Every Shadow on the street turned towards him in a sudden flare of yellow eyes.

Souji ran. There was no strategy involved, no tactics - this was just fear, primal flight instinct. He vaulted a pedestrian barrier and ran out onto the main road. There were cars scattered here and there, some of them with smashed windows or doors twisted outward, as if a great force had pushed them open from the inside. Souji ducked behind a car and gasped for breath, trying to figure out his next move.

Behind him, something giggled.

Souji flinched and darted out of his hiding spot, his sword’s scabbard going flying as he unsheathed the blade, leveling it at the Shadow. It wasn’t that close, a good three meters away. Maybe he could still-

The Shadow giggled again, then reached for him, its arm stretching grotesquely to bridge the distance between them. Souji jumped back, his stomach roiling. The Shadow’s claws hissed through the space where he’d been.

Something lashed at his ankles without warning, and he went down, catching a glimpse of a dark, whiplike limb. Another Shadow, the bulk of it far away, but that didn’t matter when they could distort their bodies to reach him. Their laughter was everywhere now, echoing through the fog and off the buildings, and he struggled against the binding on his ankles to no avail.

He was going to die-

_"Stop."_

The word resonated with power, and everything froze. Even Souji stopped struggling, so strong was the compulsion to obey. Slowly, the speaker came into his field of vision, bringing with her the stench of the grave, innumerable limbs rattling against the asphalt. He tried to close his eyes and couldn’t.

"So. You’ve returned." She was beside him now, and his skin crawled; the reek of her made him want to throw up, but he couldn’t do that either. A swirl of fog passed between them for a moment, and when it cleared she had a face, red eyes and a tumble of silver hair. "I wasn’t expecting this."

He just stared at her, unable to look away.

She reached for him with one hand, this one covered with smooth flesh, drawing a line of ice down his cheek. “I thought you’d forfeited. And yet here you are again, unneeded, unwanted.” Her lips curved in a cruel smile. “And yet… interesting. Perhaps I will allow it.”

Abruptly, Souji found himself capable of speech. “Who-” he croaked.

She laughed, though there was nothing of joy in the sound. “Fool, I awoke potential in your heart, all those months ago.” Something inside Souji rang like a bell, though it felt dissonant, on the verge of shattering. “And Izanagi came to you. Who do you think I am?”

_Izanagi-_

The pieces came together, and Souji took a sharply indrawn breath; Izanami nodded with satisfaction. “Once again, you ran away like the coward you are, unable to face the truth of this world.” Her face twisted, and darkness bloomed on her luminous skin, rotting the flesh and revealing bone underneath. “This time, I will not be appeased with a mere thousand. You will see.”

She brushed one rotting hand over his forehead, something cold and foul smearing onto his skin. “A gift,” she crooned. “So that you might _enjoy_ your return. These little ones will leave you unharmed until midnight, so that you may behold what you have wrought. So that you will understand. Perhaps you will comprehend it at last before you die.”

Souji tried to wet his lips with his tongue before speaking. “What… what am I supposed to do?”

Her smile was the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen. “Tell me if there is any hope, any _redemption_ to be found here.”

Before he could respond, she turned with a swish of robes and vanished into the fog. He heard the Shadows moving around him - no, moving away from him.

Souji rolled to one side and threw up until there was nothing left in his stomach but bile. Shaking, he managed to pull the water bottle out of his bag to rinse out his mouth, then heaved himself to his feet. There were a few small Shadows in the area, and he raised his sword warily, but they made no move to attack him. They were just watching, yellow eyes bright.

_Until midnight._

Souji swallowed against the taste of bile and stumbled towards the nearest corner. He couldn’t waste the ‘gift’ he’d been given.


	4. Last of Us

It wasn’t long before he stumbled over his first body.

Not someone he recognized, at least, but the body was collapsed on the sidewalk, its back split open along the spine. It reminded Souji of nothing so much as a butterfly’s broken chrysalis, a discarded shell now abandoned. He shuddered, murmured a brief prayer over the corpse, and kept going.

He could look around now that the Shadows weren’t relentlessly pursuing him, though what he found wasn’t reassuring at all. The buildings were still standing, for the most part, although a few had been reduced to burned-out shells. The Shadows he passed continued their regular movements, as if they were going shopping, or having a conversation with their neighbors. Utterly mundane things, except that Shadows were doing them.

He had to stop and steel himself before turning the corner towards home.

His uncle’s house was still there though the front door had been pushed off its tracks from the inside. Slowly, his sword at the ready, Souji stepped inside. The fog was everywhere, condensing on the inner walls. The tatami squished wetly under his feet.

"Uncle?" he called out, reaching for the light switch. To his surprise, it actually worked, though illuminating the damaged interior only highlighted the stark difference between the house’s current state and the way it had been on the day Souji left.

There was no answer.

He walked slowly through the house, forcing himself to breathe evenly, because his only other option was screaming panic and he couldn’t waste the few short hours Izanami had given him. Upstairs, first - his old room was as he remembered it. Exactly as he remembered it, actually, complete with the soggy remains of the cardboard boxes he hadn’t needed, the packing tape he’d left neatly on the desk next to his thank-you note. The note’s envelope was warped by dampness, but it seemed otherwise untouched. He picked it up to confirm, his hands shaking, and what was left of the glue came unstuck at his tug. Dojima had never cleaned up after him. He’d never read the note.

Slowly, Souji descended the stairs. He couldn’t avoid his uncle’s bedroom any longer, and he did his best to prepare himself for the sight of a corpse as he opened the door.

… But there was nothing, or at least no body. There was what looked like dried blood soaked into the bed linens, the stains streaking down the edge of the mattress to pool on the floor. Souji backed out of the room. Only one option left, then. Nanako’s room.

He put his hand on the doorknob and turned. Stale fog slid past him, tasting of dust and damp. He wiped condensation off his glasses and reached for the light switch. The bulb flickered for a moment, and he caught a glimpse of what might have been Dojima, standing with his back to the door, before the light burned out with a snap.

The next instant, Souji was slammed against the floor, wheezing at the sudden, choking hold on his windpipe. Pain lanced down his spine; he kicked reflexively, trying to get the thing off of him, but the Shadow just sprouted extra limbs to pin him down further. It wailed, an unearthly sound that made tears spring to Souji’s eyes.

_Nanako._ It sounded like the Shadow was saying _Nanako._

Souji wrenched to the side, tearing his legs free from the Shadow’s hold; he kicked upwards with both feet, as hard as he could. The Shadow let out a burbling cry and released him, and Souji grabbed his sword and heaved himself to his feet.

They circled each other, the Shadow’s bright yellow eyes the only real light in the room. Souji wondered frantically if he could reach his Personas, if they’d even _work_ here, if this still counted as the real world - but the Shadow jumped at him again, and he snapped his sword up into a guard position, fending off its attack with a desperate twist of his blade. He didn’t want to kill the last remnant of his uncle, but it was looking more and more like he didn’t have a choice.

Maybe it would be a kindness.

"I’m sorry," Souji cried, and lunged. The Shadow dodged his first strike, deflected the second, and threw itself out of the way of the third - but the third was a feint, and Souji snapped the blade back in a wide arc, cleaving through the Shadow’s torso with a jolt that nearly tore the sword from his grasp. "I’m sorry, I’m _sorry_ , please-“

The Shadow slumped to the ground, staring at him, the light in its yellow eyes guttering. Its limbs lost what little cohesion they’d possessed. “Nanako?” it managed, a weak, questioning groan.

"Waiting for you," Souji whispered, past the ache in his throat.

The Shadow let out a long, slow hiss and collapsed into a black smear, its eyes blinking out. A moment later, Souji’s sword tumbled from his grip, and he fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands.

In the distance, he thought he heard Izanami laughing.


	5. Divided

Souji trudged through the streets in a daze, the fog dark and swirling around him. Night had fallen, and the streetlights formed pools of brightness that were almost comforting. The Shadows were evidently not destructive without cause. He wondered, vaguely, how long it would take for the utilities to go, left unmaintained as they were. Or perhaps they’d already failed, and Izanami was keeping things running on a whim. There was no way to know.

He was running out of time.

He’d had some vague thought, earlier, of finding the rest of the team, what he’d do if they were like his uncle… his mind quickly slid away from the thought. But he was exhausted, and four hours was not enough time to find them all even if he’d been in perfect condition.

Really, he should have just headed for the train tracks the instant he left Dojima’s house. And yet, somehow, he wandered street after street, desperately searching for something even he wasn’t sure of. Survivors? Some part of the town that somehow escaped this horror?

Souji blinked and realized what street he stood on. Yosuke’s house loomed large in front of him.

It was in pretty good shape, though from the street it looked like all the upstairs windows had been broken, in some cases torn entirely out of the walls. The downstairs windows, however, were boarded up, and Souji wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. He stared at the house for a long moment before squaring his shoulders and stepping up into the yard.

_You could still run-_

No. No, he couldn’t.

The front door was shut tight, unsurprisingly. Souji lifted one hand and pounded on the door, then leaned on the doorbell just in case that still worked. “Yosuke? Yosuke - it’s me, it’s Souji, if you’re in there, _please-_ ”

No answer. None whatsoever, though he thought he heard something moving upstairs. Taking a deep breath, Souji walked around the back of the house, trying the boards on all the windows, seeing if there was another way in. Even if Yosuke was inside and sane, he wasn’t entirely sure the other boy would let him in. 

He thought he heard creaking on the second floor again, but that could have been his imagination. Wearily, Souji tried the boards on the kitchen window, and realized with a start that one of them had shifted under his hand. He slowly put down his sword and bag, then pulled at the board with both hands, heedless of splinters. “Come on- _damn it-_ ”

With a crack, the board came free, sending Souji stumbling back and revealing the dark interior of the house. He used the first board to pry the second one loose, then retrieved his things and climbed in through the window. “Yosuke?” he hissed into the blackness, trying to remember where the light switches were. “Yosuke, are you here?” He took a few tentative steps forward, then paused as the floor creaked - under his feet, or something else’s?

"Yosuke?"

Light flared, blinding him, and he just had a moment to register that the kitchen lights had been flipped on before something hit him, knocking him to the floor.

_"You."_

The word was a snarl, but it was significantly more human than anything he’d heard since Izanami. Souji stopped struggling immediately, squinting against the glare of the overhead lights, trying to make out the dark shape above him.

It was Yosuke.

Yosuke, and _human_ , not blacked out into something barely recognizable as having once been a person. But there was a yellow flicker in his eyes, and he shoved Souji back against the floor, pinning his shoulders. In the back of his mind, Souji had been expecting Yosuke’s reaction to be violent, but he hadn’t expected the sudden searing pain that erupted under the other boy’s hands, like knives piercing his flesh.

Souji reacted instinctively, shoving Yosuke back and twisting to one side to get out from under him, scrambling to his feet with his sword in a guard position. Yosuke stood up slowly, his eyes narrowed.

"Yosuke… I…” Souji stared at him, and the sword wobbled in his grip for a moment. “Are… are you okay?" 

The glow in Yosuke’s eyes kindled into a blaze of yellow. “Am I okay? _Am I okay?_ " he shouted, lunging at Souji with surprising speed and swinging a fist at his face. Souji tried to dodge, but the blow caught him anyway. "You left. You _left_ , damnit, and she- and you-” Yosuke’s words spluttered into incoherence, drowned by his anger; something in his silhouette against the overhead lights changed for a moment.

Then Yosuke took a deep, shaking breath, as if forcing himself to regain his composure. “What do you think?” he said, bitterly. “You _ran away_. Without a word.” And there was anger there, yes, and frustration… but not that lack of coherence, that utter failure of mind that had marked the other Shadows Souji had seen. Even that punch lacked the force of a true attack - instead, it felt reminiscent of the blows they’d traded on the riverbank so long ago.

After a moment, Souji slowly lowered his sword, wincing at the pain in his shoulders; he could feel warm blood trickling over his skin, sticking to the now-torn fabric of his shirt. "I didn’t… I didn’t run away,” he said quietly. "When… when Nanako- and then you guys and Namatame, I… I couldn’t… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before I left…"

"It’s not about telling me,” Yosuke hissed at him. He was pacing now, stalking the length of the room like a caged animal. “You left. You _gave up_. She was waiting for you to do something, damnit- you’re the Wild Card, the _special_ one. And you left.”

Souji shuddered, his stomach twisting up again. “You mean Izanami?”

"She was waiting for you to… to fight, to make a decision, to do _something_ , anything, and-” Yosuke bowed his head and clenched his hands into fists. When he spoke again, his voice was pitched low, intense. “You _left_. She killed the town that night, _partner_.”

The once-fond nickname now cut like a knife. “I didn’t - I didn’t know,” Souji whispered. “I didn’t, Yosuke, please-“

Yosuke sat down abruptly, the glow of his eyes thinning with menace; then the yellow vanished, blowing out like a candle. “Why did you come back?” he demanded. His voice cracked, and he sounded like _Yosuke_ for the first time - Yosuke, not his Shadow. “ _Why_ , damnit?”

Souji stared at him, nearly speechless. “I… I don’t know,” he said, finally. “It was… it was like suddenly waking up, I knew something was wrong, I just… _god_ , Yosuke, I didn’t know…”

"Yeah, well. Now you know," Yosuke said, his eyes flickering. "Just you, Shadows, whatever the fuck we are now, and _her_.”

"I’m sorry," Souji said. "I didn’t know what was going to happen, I… I know that doesn’t fix it, but I’m here now, and I’m going to _try_ , so can we just-” He bit off the end of the sentence with a muffled curse as his shoulders tensed unbidden, sending fire down his torso.

“Try _what?_ What the fuck do you think you can do?” Yosuke glowered at him for a moment, then let out a weary sigh. “God _damnit_ , Souji…” He made an odd gesture with one hand, as if he were flicking something in Souji’s direction. Something stirred in the air, soft and oddly familiar, and Souji gasped with relief as the pain abruptly lessened, then went away entirely. Even the aches from his exertions earlier vanished completely, leaving him still tired but physically whole.

Souji tugged at his sleeves; beneath the bloodsoaked, shredded cloth was healed skin, no trace of the odd wounds remaining. “Th-thanks,” he said, slowly. “What… what was that? How did you…”

"We survived because of our Personas… our Shadows." Yosuke’s tone was bitter again, his eyes glowing brightly. He held one hand out in Souji’s general direction. "Shadows, Personas, same thing. You’re me and I’m you means _we’re us_.” He flexed his fingers and glints of silver protruded from the tips, short claws that looked more than sharp enough to have caused Souji’s wounds.

Souji thought about Susano-o’s physical form and winced. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

Yosuke snarled at him, and an instant later Souji was pressed up against the wall with Yosuke’s full weight against him, one of Yosuke’s hands clawing strips out of the plaster. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Is that all you can say?” he spat.

Souji swallowed hard and tried not to look at Yosuke’s transformed, claw-tipped hand, but Yosuke caught the frightened glance anyway. “If you came here to take a look at the freak show, you can just fuck off,” he hissed, and the expression on his face was pure Shadow.

They stared at each other for a second, unmoving, and then Yosuke spat out a curse and released Souji again, turning away to resume his pacing. “I’m sorry,” Souji said quietly. “That’s not what I meant. I’m just - I’m just trying to understand. If you’re here, then the others…?”

"We’re all like this," Yosuke muttered, glaring at him. "Enough of the stupid questions, already. Just… just get out. This place is _hers_ now. We fucked up. _You_ fucked up. It’s _over_.”

"… I don’t think it’s over," Souji said, his voice shaking, but he refused to give in to fear. "I met Izanami, Yosuke. She… she told me she’d ‘allow’ my presence. She did something to protect me from the other Shadows, at least until midnight tonight."

Yosuke tensed up again and turned away. “You always were the fucking special one,” he growled.

"… she said she thought I’d forfeited," Souji continued, carefully feeling out his thoughts. "Forfeit… you forfeit a game. If she’s playing a game, maybe we can win it, somehow. If she did this because she thought I was giving up, then maybe… if I’m here, I’m back in play?"

"Idiot,” Yosuke spat. “You think you can beat a _goddess?_ News flash: you can’t. We already tried, and-” He clenched his fists hard at his sides again. “... We already tried. Maybe you’re special, but you’re not goddamn special enough for this shit. Just... just get out. Unless you _want_ to end up like us.” 

“Yosuke, I...” Souji wearily rubbed at his eyes, then straightened and looked squarely at the other boy. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, but I have to try.”

“It’s pointless,” Yosuke muttered. “Why the fuck are you so eager to throw your life away?” 

“... I don’t know,” Souji admitted. “But I can’t… I can’t leave things like this, no matter what it costs me.” 

Yosuke gave him a long, narrow-eyed look, then turned with a soft growl. “It’s your damn funeral.”

"Does… does that mean I can stay?" Souji asked carefully.

"Put the damn boards back on the damn window before something gets in here,” Yosuke snapped, ignoring the question. He strode away, and a moment later Souji heard the stairs creaking under his weight.

Souji let out a long breath and sank to the floor, working to regain his composure. So… that was it. He’d made his choice. In an odd way, it felt like a relief to have made a decision, even if it might well end up being a stupid, potentially fatal one. He could… well, maybe he _couldn’t_ do this.

But he was going to try.


	6. Trust

Souji hammered in the last nail and gave the board an experimental tug, sighing with relief when it didn’t budge. Hopefully that would be enough to keep the Shadows from coming in, though he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the thought that he’d now blocked his only easy escape route, too. He fished the remaining nails out of his jacket pocket and left them and the hammer on the kitchen counter.

Yosuke was nowhere to be seen - he hadn’t come back downstairs again, so Souji poked awkwardly around the kitchen by himself. Yosuke’s fridge was virtually empty, save for an empty egg carton and a pot of something that might have once been curry. It had been a long time since Souji’s last meal - he hadn’t really eaten that much this morning, and his stomach had been too twisted up with anxiety to eat anything on the trains.

Souji eventually found a small cache of canned goods in the pantry and helped himself to a can of vegetable soup, eating it out of the can without bothering to heat it up. He ate in weary silence and left the empty can on the counter before trudging upstairs, past scrapes and scratches on the walls.

Yosuke had never been much for cleaning, even before, but the second floor of his house looked like a typhoon had hit it. Fog drifted freely through the empty window frames, and there were things scattered everywhere. Nothing was dirty, exactly, but most of the furniture had been knocked over and the clutter that had formerly been confined to Yosuke’s room had taken over the entire floor. None of the rooms seemed to have doors anymore, either.

… Except for Yosuke’s parents’ room, Souji realized, taking a few steps down the hallway towards it. That one remaining door was blocked by more nailed-up boards, and on closer examination there was what looked like a trail of old, dried blood leading away from it.

When Souji turned away, fighting his unease at the implications, he caught sight of Yosuke at last. The other boy was standing just inside the doorway to his own room, though it was so dark in there the only thing Souji could really see was Yosuke’s glowing eyes. Yosuke’s gaze narrowed as he realized Souji had noticed him.

“Should’ve left when you had the chance.” Yosuke tossed a bundle of bed linens at Souji, though they fell short and landed on the hallway floor. “Sleep wherever the hell you want, but stay out of my room. The bathroom still works, but I don’t know how to fix it if it breaks, so be careful. And _stay out_. Got it?”

“Got it,” Souji echoed, and Yosuke slunk back into the gloom of his bedroom. Souji let out a long breath and bent to pick up the linens. All of them had been torn as if someone had gone at them with dull scissors.

He ended up in the spare room that Yosuke’s father had used as a study. The room was just as disheveled as the rest, bookcases toppled over and papers strewn everywhere. The desk Souji vaguely remembered lay in pieces, the computer monitor tumbled to the floor and abandoned. But there was still a small couch in the room, though the cushions all sported gashes. Souji dumped the linens on the couch and leaned his sword against the armrest.

He was so tired.

Souji slowly went through his bag; the contents seemed so strange, so bizarrely normal. He knew intellectually that he’d left his family’s apartment just that morning, but it felt like it had been days since then. He’d packed a little food, some water, clothes, toiletries. Had he really been so naive as to pack _toothpaste?_

He went about his evening routine as best he could. The water was warm, and that helped more than he’d been expecting, although he didn’t dare shower without knowing how much water they had to work with. The bathroom mirror was broken in a spiderweb pattern, as if from a sharp, powerful blow, and that wasn't reassuring either. Still, washing Izanami’s rot from his face and cleaning the Shadow residue from his hands was a relief.

But as Souji laid down on the couch, he ended up staring at the ceiling rather than sleeping. He was so tired, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the horrors he’d seen. The shadowy shapes of what remained of the townspeople, the words of the rotting goddess… hopefully, he would be safe enough here, and he was too tired to do anything right now anyway, but the midnight deadline still weighed on him. Still, if he made it to the next day, he could… 

…and that was where he kept hitting a mental wall, because he had no idea what the next step could possibly be. He had to figure out some kind of plan, though. Maybe Yosuke could help him-

Souji threw an arm over his eyes. He wondered just how much of his best friend was left. They seemed to have a truce, but it was uneasy at best, and those bloodstains… he’d seen Yosuke angry before, but he’d never been _afraid_ of Yosuke until now.

Souji pulled the torn sheets around him and curled up into a ball, but the images wouldn’t stop replaying in his head. As sleep claimed him, his last thought was of yellow eyes in the dark.

…………………………

_She hadn’t been this rough since the first week, that first night when she’d folded her too-many arms around him as the world went all to hell and he was ground zero, and she’d dragged his shadow self out through his pores._

_He arched up into the touch of her many hands, skeletal fingers that alternately teased and bruised, and she chuckled low in her throat and whispered_ Izanagi, Izanagi _into his ears, silver hair draping over his discolored skin._

_(_ Tohru, Tohru, _one part of him begged, but that part had long since been reduced to gibbering, and he mostly ignored it.)_

_She was hunger, triumph, creation and destruction wrapped in white, and she hissed with pleasure when he came,_ fuck, _he didn’t even care that her perfect skin was falling away again, revealing the rot underneath. At least she was honest about it._

_She twined around him in the aftermath, cradling him, streaks of nearly-dried blood marking where she’d been. “Something happen?” he managed to ask, or maybe he’d just thought it; it didn’t seem to matter, with her._

_That low chuckle came again, humming in his bones. “The prodigal fool has returned,” she said, and that gibbering part of him resolved into brief coherency, providing scattered images, memories - the Seta kid, Dojima’s- and there it went again, dissolving into a long, drawn-out scream, because if there was one thing that he couldn’t think about it was-_

_Her kiss made everything evaporate, and he was grateful for it; he’d learned to love the taste of rot. “What shall I do with him?” she whispered, cupping his cheek with one hand; he could feel her trembling with anticipation, reaching into his brain to tug out an answer, too impatient to wait for his tongue to move._

_He wasn’t entirely sure what she found there - he was never sure, not any more - but it seemed to please her, and her delight shook him to the core._

……………………………

Souji woke slowly into a sense of profound unease, as if something was watching him. When he opened his eyes, the room was haloed in faint yellow light, hazy and flickering, oddly familiar. It hit him all at once, and he sat up, his heart pounding as adrenaline flooded his system. He was in Inaba, like a nightmare but real, and the light was like the Midnight Channel-

She was watching him from the tilted screen of the fallen computer monitor, haloed in yellow static. “It’s midnight,” Izanami informed him as he focused on her, fumbling for his sword with one hand. “Did you find anything? Any hope whatsoever?” Her tone was dark and mocking, words set to wound. He just stared at her, and she smiled. “I didn’t think so.”

A loud crash came from downstairs, and Souji flinched. Then another crash, from the other side of the house. And another. “You were a fool to return,” Izanami concluded. The picture blinked out in a final swirl of static, and Souji staggered to his feet and drew his sword just as the first Shadow came in the door.

Souji met it with a shout, cleaving it through, but there was another Shadow beyond that one, and another, and another; the hallway floor looked like it was moving. Souji retreated, hoping to at least use the door as a bottleneck, but there were so many it hardly mattered.

Desperate, Souji reached for a Persona and found nothing.

It felt as if there was a wall between Souji himself and the Personas’ presence and power. He strained, mentally, then staggered as a Shadow struck his side, breaking his concentration.

_"Get out!"_

A sudden roar of fury echoed through the house, and a moment later a blast of wind erupted in the hallway, forcing through the door and making Souji stagger. He dispatched another small Shadow with a swing of his sword, dimly aware of more crashing and angry shouts coming from the other room. _Yosuke-_

And then the other boy was there, in front of him, moving so quickly that to Souji he seemed a blur of furious motion, shot through with colors that reminded Souji of Susano-o. Another gale of wind tore through the room, directed at a cluster of Shadows near Souji. It sliced through them as if they were paper. _“Get out,”_ he heard Yosuke hiss as the other boy drove the Shadows back. “Goddamn _fucking-_ ”

“Yosuke!” Souji shouted, raising one arm to shield himself from the wind. “Let me try, maybe I can summon my-”

_“Don’t,”_ Yosuke snarled, whirling on him, his golden eyes kindling to even greater intensity; his silhouette was definitely odd, though in the darkness it was hard to make out details. “No Personas, damnit! I’ll take care of them!” He spun back to face the Shadows with a growl, another powerful gust slicing through the room.

Souji swallowed, then turned. It had been a long time since he’d fought any amount of Shadows, but his body remembered the motions, when to parry, when to dodge, when to strike. There were far too many targets for him to pay attention to what Yosuke was doing, though as another Shadow corpse slid from his sword he heard the other boy shouting downstairs. Yosuke’s voice was a feral snarl.

“This place is _mine,_ damnit! He’s _mine-_ ”

_-he’s mine…!_

Souji breathed out in a rush and drove his blade into the last Shadow remaining in the study, impaling it against one of the walls. It died with a wail, and Souji jerked his sword free from the plaster, his heart pounding from more than just adrenaline.

There were a few stragglers left in the hallway, and the floor and walls were splattered with viscous black ichor that looked uncomfortably like blood in the low light. Souji did his best to ignore it and focused on methodically checking every room and dispatching the remaining Shadows. Even accounting for magic, he couldn’t figure out how Yosuke had so thoroughly cleaned out the massive number of Shadows that had attacked them. He could hear the other boy moving around downstairs now, hissing imprecations at full volume. A door slammed, and a moment later loud banging echoed through the house.

Souji started down the stairs. “Yosuke, do you-”

“Don’t come down!” Yosuke yelled at him. “Go back upstairs, damnit, I’ve got it under control-”

Strangely, Yosuke sounded more… more _frantic_ than he had during the actual fight. Souji hesitated. “Are you okay?”

Yosuke made an exasperated sound. “I’m _fine,_ damnit, just- go away, okay?!”

Souji sighed and turned around. “Okay,” he said, climbing back up the stairs to the hallway. He turned on the lights and double-checked the other rooms for Shadows again as the sound of hammering resonated from downstairs, interspersed with more loud grumbling that he couldn’t quite make out. When Souji failed to find anything that wasn’t already dead, he slumped against the hallway wall and slid down into a sitting position, still keeping his sword close at hand just in case.

After a few more minutes, a breeze ruffled Souji’s hair, and he looked up to see Yosuke crouched in the open hallway window, his eyes glowing brightly. Yosuke blinked at the sight of him, then hissed. “Turn the damn light off,” he shouted, hunching in on himself.

"Yosuke-"

"Turn it off! _Go away!_ " Yosuke slipped forward and landed on the floor with a crash, curling up tightly. “God _damnit_ , Souji, just fucking-“

But Souji slowly got to his feet, keeping his gaze on the debris-strewn floor rather than on Yosuke, one hand held out as if he were approaching a frightened animal. “G-go away,” Yosuke repeated, his voice cracking.

Souji knelt down next to him, still not looking. “I’m not here to… to laugh at you, or anything, I… I just…”

Yosuke let out a long, shaking breath that ended in a low growl. “I don’t- I don’t want you to see me like this,” he said bitterly.

Souji hesitated, then slowly put one hand down on top of Yosuke’s, keeping his gaze turned away. Yosuke flinched, scraping clawmarks into the floor, but when Souji didn’t move away he slowly curled his hand into a shaking fist under Souji’s palm. For a moment, Souji was sure that Yosuke would retreat again, but Yosuke stayed put even though Souji could feel the tremors running through the other boy’s entire body.

They sat like that, together, for a long time.

Finally, Yosuke shifted, freeing his hand from Souji’s. “Fine. _Fine._ But only because the… the hiding fucking _hurts,_ okay?”

"I understand," Souji said quietly.

Yosuke took a deep breath and made a soft, pained sound, followed by an odd rustling and then a soft thump. Souji didn’t move until Yosuke growled at him. “If you’re gonna look, then just _look,_ damnit!”

Souji looked.

Yosuke was breathing hard, tension in every limb as he glared at Souji, his eyes a blaze of yellow. Souji had seen the claws already, sharp silver at Yosuke’s fingertips, but there was more - _much_ more, Souji realized with a start. Susano-o’s whirling sawblades had become flat, sharp-edged blades that emerged from Yosuke’s shoulders and back. A wild tangle of red hair swept down from the nape of his neck and along the length of his spine, extending into a curving tail with a wicked blade just peeking out through the fur at its tip. 

"Well?!" Yosuke demanded after a long moment. The fur along his spine bristled and the blades clattered dissonantly against each other.

There were so many things he could say, but Souji couldn’t quite get the words out - if he was honest, he didn’t trust himself to not mess this up, too. Instead, he shifted until he was facing Yosuke, then circled the other boy with his arms, careful of the blades. Yosuke flinched at the gesture, his tail swaying with alarm. “Dude, _stop,_ you'll get hurt-“

"I don’t care," Souji mumbled. "You’re still _you._ "

Yosuke snorted. “Yeah, right,” he muttered bitterly, but he didn’t pull away. They sat there for several silent minutes before Yosuke sighed. “Just… go to bed, idiot. They won’t come back, at least not tonight. I’m… I’m scarier than they are.”

Souji broke the embrace and gave Yosuke a shaky, exhausted smile. “Okay. I… I trust you.”

Yosuke’s tail swished. “Go to bed,” he repeated, quietly.

Souji went.


	7. Another Day

Souji woke up aching in every limb, his eyes sticky with dried tears. There was fog-diffused light coming in through the open window, and he rubbed at his face for a moment before staring blankly at the ceiling. 

He’d slept, at least in theory, but everything still hurt. Every memory from the day before felt like a blow - the fog, the Shadows, Izanami, the wailing cry of the last remnant of his uncle, the blades jutting from Yosuke’s skin. 

All those things, horrors beyond imagining… every single one of them was his fault, because he’d left. Guilt settled in him like a living thing, heavy and gnawing, and his eyes began to sting once more. He rolled over onto his side and tugged a shred of blanket over his head. Maybe it would be better to leave; the only only thing he’d managed to do so far was survive past Izanami’s midnight deadline, and that had been mostly Yosuke’s doing, not his.

He imagined the amnesia taking him, too, that same slack expression coming over his own face as Inaba was purged from his mind, and shuddered. No. All of this was his fault, and it was his duty to fix whatever he could.

At least he could hold onto that. 

Souji slid awkwardly off the couch and stretched, wincing as even more aches and pains made themselves known. He peered out into the hall, but there was no sign of Yosuke. The hazy morning light made it clear how much damage the encroaching Shadows had caused and Souji winced as he headed to the bathroom past splatters of Shadow ichor and bits of shattered furniture. 

At least going through a rough semblance of his morning routine helped a little bit.

When Souji emerged from the bathroom, Yosuke was standing in the hallway, his arms folded tightly. None of his Shadow features were evident but now that Souji knew what to look for he could see the tension in Yosuke’s body, the effort it took to suppress that part of himself.

"Good morning," Souji said quietly, mustering up a small smile in hopes of easing that tension. 

Yosuke gave him a wary look. "Morning," he muttered. "You're still here." He didn’t relax at all, though, and Souji’s heart sank a little. 

"Yeah, I am. ...Though I'm not really sure what to do now."

Yosuke rolled his eyes. "Enjoy another _wonderful_ day in Inaba, I guess." He looked down the hallway, a sour expression on his face. "Damn Shadows really tore up the place."

"I’ll help clean up,” Souji assured him. 

Yosuke just stared at him. "... Right," he said after a moment. "Well, they won't come back, at least."

Souji remembered Yosuke’s words from the night before. "You're scarier than they are, right?"

Yosuke blinked, then looked away. "Y-yeah. Right." He pushed past Souji and into the bathroom as if embarrassed. "There's ramen in the garage," he added, before pointedly turning the shower on.

Souji let out a long breath and headed back to 'his' room, doing his best to tidy up, though at this point it amounted to piling all the debris into one corner of the room. Yosuke was still in the shower when he finished up - evidently the other boy wasn’t concerned about running out of water - so he headed downstairs.

The lower floor had also been torn up by the encroaching Shadows. Souji stared at a particularly long gash in the wood floor before retreating to the garage in search of the ramen Yosuke had mentioned. There was a whole flat, to his relief, plus some other non-perishable goods, all neatly stacked and covered with a layer of dust. Souji brought in two bowls plus a box of tea and set about making breakfast. At least the Shadows hadn't destroyed any of the kitchen appliances - evidently their target had been Souji alone, and everything else had been collateral damage.

The smell of hot food was heavenly, even if it was Junes-brand instant ramen and generic green tea. Souji arranged the impromptu meal on the kitchen counter and pulled up two of the least damaged chairs he could find, then settled and took a deep breath of the warm steam wafting off his tea mug. 

_... god,_ what was he doing here?

The clatter of Yosuke descending the stairs was a welcome distraction, and Souji turned to offer the other boy a tentative smile as he entered the kitchen. "I made enough for both of us," he said, gesturing at the chair next to him.

Yosuke, however, stared at the ramen bowl as if it were a snake. "Uh- uh, thanks," he stammered, sitting down slowly; he was still maintaining his mostly-human form, though Souji thought he caught glints of silver on his fingertips. Yosuke stared at the food a while longer, then slowly picked up the chopsticks Souji had set out and lifted the lid on the ramen, giving the noodles a half-hearted stir.

"Thank you for the food," Souji said, and started eating his own ramen.

Yosuke made a noncommittal noise and kept swirling his noodles around in the bowl, uneaten. "I ate earlier," he said defensively when Souji gave him a questioning look.

The silence stretched between them, awkward and heavy.

Finally, Souji put down his chopsticks and sat back, cupping his hands around his mug. He hesitated for a moment before plunging in. "What… what exactly happened the day I left? You said Izanami… she... killed the town?"

Yosuke let out a long, hissing breath and one of the chopsticks snapped in his hand. He glared at the broken pieces as if they'd personally offended him. "She came at midnight the day you left,” he said, slowly. “Shadows fucking everywhere, boiling out of the TV, people turning into them, the fog coming through the goddamn walls-” His eyes kindled into yellow again, and a ripple of tension ran through his frame; Souji glanced away for a moment, just in case his control slipped. "We all managed to find each other, and Izanami wasn't hiding or anything. I think she was waiting for us.”

Yosuke started drumming his fingertips on the countertop, the sound turning into a series of sharp taps as his claws slipped out. "We attacked her, but as soon as we called our Personas, they… we..." He hunched over in his seat and gave Souji a sullen look. "The change, it... it fucking _hurt_ , and we… we didn't understand what was happening. We scattered, and she just laughed."

No wonder Yosuke had told him not to use a Persona the night before. "I'm sorry," Souji whispered. 

"Yeah, well, that doesn't fix it." 

Souji took a deep breath. "There might be something we can do to fix it now," he said, putting his mug down on the countertop.

Yosuke gave him an exasperated look. "You just don't get it, do you? It's over. We already lost. I mean, yeah, _great_ , you're the 'leader', but there's some things you _can't fucking fix._ " His voice cracked, the yellow in his eyes flickering like a candle on the verge of being blown out.

"I just... surely doing something has to be better than just... just surviving," Souji began.

Yosuke turned on him with a low growl, slamming one hand down on the counter with enough force to knock over both their mugs; the silver blades slipped from his skin, like a cat extending its claws, and his mane and tail spilled free as emotion overcame his control at last. "You've been here _less than a day,_ " he hissed. "What the fuck do you know about surviving?! The only reason you're still here now is because I saved your ass! There's _nothing_ we can do. There's nothing human even left here except you."

Souji stared at him, then slumped. "I'm sorry... you're right, I don't understand. Not the way you do. And I... I don't know what to do next," he admitted, guilt twisting his stomach. "But I can't give up, even if it's stupid. Even if I die trying, at least I'll know I did everything I could, even if it wasn't enough." He swallowed, hard.

Yosuke’s eyes narrowed. “Everything you could, huh? Like last time, when you left without a word?"

Souji winced but met Yosuke’s gaze. "I'm not going to run away again." Yosuke glared at him and pushed away from the table. "... At least tell me where the others are.” Souji persisted, “Maybe I can find them."

"Oh, right, like that's going to help anything." Yosuke was pacing again, the claws on his toes scraping at the floor. "We're _all_ fucked. We're all goddamn broken. What good are you against that, huh?"

"I don't know," Souji whispered. "I don't know, Yosuke."

Silence fell. After a moment, Souji quietly got up, taking the dishes over to the sink as Yosuke continued to pace, making low sounds that Souji couldn't quite translate into words. Souji washed the mugs and put Yosuke's untouched ramen bowl in the fridge. No sense wasting food, especially now.

"Fine," Yosuke said abruptly, startling him. " _Fine._ I'll take you to see Chie. Maybe then you'll understand."

"What about Yukiko?" Souji asked, automatically - it was rare to find one without the other, after all.

Yosuke glared at him, his arms folded. "Chie," he repeated. "And stop asking so many goddamn questions, and stop pretending like things are normal," he added, making a sharp gesture at the now clean mugs. "Get your crap and let's just go."

"Are we coming back here?"

Yosuke made an irritated noise. " _I_ am. I don't know about you. I'm hoping you'll figure it out and get out of town while you still can. Whatever." He stalked out of the room, bristling, and Souji heard him stomp his way up the stairs.

Souji buried his face in his hands, then took a deep breath, fighting for composure yet again. It felt like every time he’d regained some vague sense of balance, no matter how fragile, something knocked him back once more. 

…Well, he was going to see Chie, at least. Souji wiped at his face and put the mugs back in the cabinet, then headed upstairs, swallowing past the lump in his throat.


	8. Wreckage

In the end, Souji left most of what he'd packed behind, bringing only some basic provisions, a flashlight from Yosuke's garage, and his sword. Yosuke rolled his eyes at the sight of Souji's mostly empty bag, then headed down the hall until they reached the window. "I hope you can climb, because I'm not taking the boards off the door every time you want to go somewhere.”

“Climb? Oh-” There was a rope coiled messily around the stairway banister, Souji realized, and he picked it up and tugged at it to make sure it was secure. “Is this how you get in and out all the time?”

“Something like that,” Yosuke muttered. “Come on, get going.” He pulled the rope out of Souji’s hands and tossed it out the window.

“Okay,” Souji said, brushing away a faint prickle of irritation; he didn’t want to frustrate Yosuke further right now. He heaved himself onto the window frame and took hold of the rope, swinging himself out the window, his feet scrabbling awkwardly at the side of the house until he made it safely down to solid ground. 

A moment later Yosuke emerged from the window as well, making his way down. “Just leave the rope there. The Shadows can’t climb that well,” the other boy informed him, heading out to the street. Souji followed.

A night’s sleep hadn’t made the streets of Inaba look any better; the signs of decay and abandonment were everywhere, far more than Souji would have thought possible in the week since he’d left Inaba for the city. The fog was ever-present, and the Shadow population hadn’t decreased at all. Some of them were shuffling down the sidewalk, and Souji wondered morbidly if they’d once been Yosuke’s neighbors. One of them was hunched down in a nearby lawn - had that been the middle-aged woman with the three cats? God, what had happened to the cats?

One of the Shadows turned in Souji’s direction and scented the air, taking a step towards him, but Yosuke growled and it backed off, keeping its distance. "Gotta show them who's boss," Yosuke said and kept going, moving just quickly enough that Souji couldn’t easily walk at his side.

Souji stared at Yosuke’s back as they headed down the street. The other boy was holding in his Shadow features again, despite everything he’d said the night before about it being painful to do so. Souji had thought he'd made some progress then, remembering the tremble of Yosuke's hand under his, and yet…

He didn't know. He didn't know _anything_ any more.

All he could do was keep moving forward. Souji hurried up a bit to catch up with Yosuke, and something in the air changed, the light around them turning a livid and uncomfortable red. The landscape shifted around them, the asphalt of the street now pitted and fractured sharply, bits of it standing up at odd angles. Street signs jutted into the air, their poles tangled in what looked like caution tape. Souji caught sight of a red-and-black sky through the fog and paused. 

“Damnit,” Yosuke muttered, looking around warily. The silver blades extended from his back and shoulders, and his tail curled out in a rapid swish. Evidently he was more worried about whatever had just happened than about Souji seeing his Shadow features.

Souji drew his sword and came up alongside Yosuke. “What happened? Where are we?”

“There’s no real difference between Inaba and the TV world any more,” Yosuke said, his gaze narrowing as he scanned the twisted landscape. “Sometimes it breaks through like this, and-”

Something snarled behind them, and Souji whirled to see a massive Shadow perched on a pile of rubble - not one of the blacked-out humanoid ones, but one of the gigantic cat-like Shadows they had so often encountered in the TV world. Its eyes were locked on them, a predator hunting prey. Yosuke hissed and slipped into a crouch as Souji brought his sword up in guard position. 

“Don’t just stand there, idiot - run!” Yosuke shouted and leapt for the Shadow, propelled by a burst of wind magic. The Shadow roared and Souji sliced at it with his sword, but it brought up one huge white paw and nearly tore the sword out of Souji’s grip, making him stagger to one side. 

Yosuke landed on the Shadow’s back, his claws fully extended, and the Shadow jerked its head upwards with a pained hiss as Yosuke tore into it. Souji tried again, jabbing at the Shadow’s unprotected side, but it whirled and knocked him to the ground. He wheezed, trying desperately to catch his breath. No armor, no Personas - he knew they’d always protected him, but he hadn’t realized quite how much until now, and the Shadow was lifting its paw to go after him again-

“Get out of the way, damnit!” Yosuke yelled, a blast of wind erupting from the ground in front of the Shadow and pelting its face with debris. It shied away, and Yosuke stabbed at the Shadows’ eyes with his claws, effectively blinding it. 

Souji scrambled to his feet, reflexively reaching for his Personas before remembering Yosuke’s warning. Not that it mattered; the Personas still felt distant and at one remove. He barely managed to parry the Shadows’ next enraged attack, the impact making his arms ache powerfully. Yosuke was doing far more actual damage; all _he_ was managing to do was stay alive and somewhat intact. Even his movements felt sluggish and slow compared to what he’d been able to do before. 

And then the Shadow slammed into him with its full weight, sending him flying; a stabbing pain shot through his torso as he hit the ground, dimly aware that Yosuke was shouting something in incoherent fury. 

Suddenly, the Shadow let out a panicked shriek as the most powerful blast of wind yet twisted ferociously around it, tearing it free from the ground and sending it spiraling helplessly into the sky. The Shadow hit the asphalt with a sickening crunch and slumped, its body immediately losing cohesion. Yosuke stared at it, breathing heavily, and Souji thought the other boy might have been trembling a little bit.

Without warning, Yosuke whirled, reaching down to grab Souji by the front of his shirt. “What the _hell_ were you thinking? That Shadow could have fucking killed you! I can’t be babysitting you all the time, damnit!

“...What?” Souji gave him an incredulous look. Yosuke released him and started walking briskly again. Souji had to scramble to his feet to keep up. The pain in his ribcage pulsed with every breath. As they moved forward, the world shifted back to what counted as normal in Inaba these days.

After a moment spent trying and failing to rein in his mounting irritation, Souji sped up as best he could, managing to make it in front of Yosuke and blocking the other boy’s path. “Stop,” he said, through gritted teeth. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Yosuke just raised one eyebrow in the most sarcastic way possible and gestured expansively with one hand, as if to indicate the entire situation. “Okay, _right,_ I _know,_ but I’m trying my best, and-”

“You keep saying that,” Yosuke said sharply. “ _Trying my best. Doing my best._ You’re going to _try_ so hard, huh? Why now? Why didn’t you fucking _try_ sooner? Why not months ago? _Was it that hard to pick up your goddamn phone?!_ ” 

Souji stared at him. “That- are you seriously mad about _that?_ Don’t you think we have bigger problems to worry about right now?”

To Souji’s surprise, the yellow light in Yosuke’s eyes faded abruptly. “I should have known,” he muttered, his fists clenching at his side. “I should have _fucking_ known.”

“Known what?” Souji said, nettled. “I’m trying to help-”

“There’s that damn word again, _trying,_ ” Yosuke hissed, taking a step towards Souji. 

“-to _help,_ ” Souji continued. “And phones work both ways, you know,” he added, glaring at the other boy. 

Yosuke snarled, and a gust of wind slammed Souji against the wall of a building, leaving him reeling. His sword clattered to the ground. “You _left,_ ” Yosuke shouted, grabbing Souji’s arms and pinning him in place, his claws piercing Souji’s skin; Souji yelped and kicked Yosuke in the stomach, trying to squirm away, but Yosuke held on fiercely. “You left without a _goddamn word_ , Souji, not one word for fucking months!” 

“Nanako _died,_ ” Souji snapped, trying once more to wrench out of Yosuke’s grip and failing. “My cousin - no, my _little sister_ died, my uncle practically lost the will to live, you _murdered_ Namatame-”

“Justice isn’t murder,” Yosuke hissed, his grip on Souji’s arms tightening painfully. 

A bark of incredulous laughter escaped Souji. “Justice? You mean your stupid revenge for Saki! So much death, and yet you-” 

Yosuke’s eyes flickered wildly, yellow to brown to yellow again, and he shoved Souji up against the wall hard enough to bruise. “Would you have ever come back or said another goddamn word to me if this shit hadn’t happened? _Would you?!_ ”

Souji opened his mouth, reaching for another sharp retort, but something about Yosuke’s expression made the words stick in his throat. 

“You didn’t even say goodbye,” Yosuke went on, his voice cracking. “And now you’re back and you think you can pick up where you left off, be the fucking fearless leader again and fix everything. You don’t have the slightest fucking clue what we’ve all been through, what you did to me even before you fucking left! Oh, but it’s _okay_ because you’re _so sorry_ and you’re _trying? Fuck you,_ Souji. I didn’t ask you to come to me and act like the only thing you cared about fixing was the _goddamn town._ ” The rush of words was thick with pain, and Souji closed his eyes as guilt crashed over him, sweeping away the anger and leaving only an aching emptiness in its place. 

“Yosuke - partner,” Souji tried again, but Yosuke took another step away from him. 

“You don’t get to call me that,” Yosuke rasped. “Not now.” He turned away, hunching inwards. “I’ll take you to Chie so you can do whatever you have to do to fucking feel better. Then you can get the fuck out and leave us freaks in peace.” 

Souji slowly pushed away from the wall and retrieved his sword, shaking, Izanami’s mocking words ringing in his ears. _Tell me if there is any redemption to be found here._ “I’m sorry,” he said at last, but the words came out so quiet that he wasn’t sure they even reached Yosuke’s ears. He took a deep breath, his throat aching. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, louder this time, aware even as he spoke that the apology was painfully inadequate. 

“Good for you,” Yosuke said, dully. His tail had stopped lashing and now hung limply behind him, his blades half-retracted as if he were exhausted. He stared at the streaks of Souji’s blood on his claws and fingertips, then groaned and scrubbed at his face. After a moment, he made that gesture from the night before and magic washed over Souji again, leaving him whole and free of pain… physical pain, at least. 

“...it’s this way,” Yosuke continued, his voice hollow. He started moving again, no longer walking briskly; instead, he looked withdrawn and utterly emptied.

Souji wiped his sword off on his shirt and sheathed it, then trailed after Yosuke with adrenaline and guilt warring in his gut.


	9. Shattered

The rest of their journey was utterly silent.

The fog muffled sound anyway, and with Yosuke maintaining a steady distance from Souji there was no opportunity to bridge the space between them even if Souji had felt like talking. Yosuke’s healing magic may have eased his physical wounds, but they’d done far more damage to each other than any simple spell could hope to mend. Souji just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, because thinking much beyond that made everything hurt. 

Still, as they moved through the streets, it became clear that Yosuke was leading him towards the Amagi Inn. That wasn’t exactly a surprise, given that they were looking for Chie, but it did make Yosuke’s earlier refusal to talk about Yukiko seem even stranger. 

The inn was on the edge of town, among trees that had once been beautiful; now, under Izanami's fog-choked reign, the trees were slowly growing brown and soft, rotting from the inside out. Yosuke stopped walking, and Souji paused too, one hand going to the hilt of his sword. After a moment, Yosuke turned towards him, his eyes glowing eerily. "Stay close," he said. "If you see anything above you, don’t try to fight it. Just run. Oh, and leave the Shadows here alone."

"Okay," Souji said quietly, a chill of unease running down his spine. He pushed his glasses up, turning to scan the fog above them. There was nothing. Yosuke grimly turned and headed up the long gravel walkway that led to the front gate of the Amagi Inn.

A screech of absolute fury split the fog, and a half-dead pine tree next to them exploded into flame. Yosuke bit back a muffled curse. "Get down," he shouted, diving for Souji and yanking him down, tearing Souji’s coat in the process. Souji stumbled and hit the ground, and a moment later the fog roiled above them as a dark shape swooped just over their heads. 

_"Go away!"_

Souji's blood ran cold. He knew that voice, though he'd never heard it so filled with anger. "Yukiko-"

"Don’t worry about that right now!" Yosuke said sharply. Fire blossomed high above them, searing away some of the fog. " _Shit,_ this isn’t going to work-" He yanked Souji to his feet and practically dragged him back towards the road. “Try and find cover and stay out of sight, damnit!”

The shape above them wheeled, tracking their movements, and another torrent of fire scorched the ground where Yosuke had been only moments before. “Hey, watch it!” Yosuke snarled at the sky, batting at the singed and smoking fur on his tail.

“I said _go away!_ ” the Shadow - _Yukiko_ \- screamed.

“We will! Just calm down, okay?!” Yosuke shouted back. “We need to talk to Chie! Souji’s-” A burst of fire hit part of the elegant stone and wood wall that marked the boundary of the Inn grounds. Both Souji and Yosuke faltered, shielding their faces from the intensity of the flames. “Damnit, she’s not listening,” Yosuke said, shoving Souji away from him. “Split up - go that way, I’ll distract her!” 

Yosuke leapt onto the stone wall and raced along it in the opposite direction. “Hey! Over here!” he yelled-

-and changed.

Souji froze in place as yet another transformation rippled over Yosuke’s body, additional blades protruding from his tail, glints of silver pushing out above his hair. His eyes blazed yellow as a silvery membrane unfolded between his arms and his sides, spars lancing outwards as support. _Wings,_ Souji realized with a start, or something very close to wings, extending from Yosuke’s arms. 

And then the other boy leapt from the wall, arms outstretched, catching a burst of wind he must have summoned. The wind carried Yosuke up into the fog like a rising kite, and Yukiko followed him with another outraged cry. 

The sound prompted Souji to move at last, running along the boundary wall in the other direction, keeping as low as he could. He could hear Yukiko yelling at Yosuke, the other boy occasionally shouting back at her, though he wasn’t sure exactly what they were saying to each other. Souji stuck to the inside of the wall, shoving his way through the occasional tangled bed of dead foliage. 

Suddenly, he heard heavy footsteps moving rapidly in his direction. Souji stopped moving, trying vainly to see through the fog around him. It was profoundly unnerving, given that he couldn’t quite tell where the footsteps were coming from, and he drew his sword on instinct-

“Gotcha!”

Ice burst up around Souji’s legs, locking him in place, and a moment later he caught sight of another dark figure in the fog. This one was at ground level and clearly human-shaped, or at least mostly human-shaped. “Damnit, Yosuke, what have I told you ab- _oh my god._ ”

He knew that voice, too. “...Chie? Chie, it’s me, Souji,” he called, voice cracking despite his best efforts. He sheathed his sword and used it to shatter the ice and free himself. 

The crunch of footsteps accelerated rapidly, and Chie slammed into him - but it wasn’t an attack, not this time. Her arms came up to loosely encircle his waist, even as she buried her face against his shoulder. “It _is_ you,” she managed; after a moment, Souji rested a tentative hand on her back. She seemed entirely human, though now that he knew the signs he could tell she was suppressing whatever Shadow features she possessed, the same way Yosuke had been. She was still wearing her green coat, even, though the sleeves had been torn off, the edges ragged. “Why are you here? Crap-” She jerked upright and stared at him, yellow kindling in her eyes. “You need to get out of here before you end up like us or worse!”

“I’m not leaving,” Souji said quietly. “Inaba is my home too. I’m sorry I lost sight of that for a while, but I’m back now and I’m not going anywhere. I have to… to try and fix this..”

Her face fell. “What can you do?” Her words weren’t accusing and sharp the way Yosuke’s had been. They were weary, any hope long since wrung out. “None of us could do anything when it happened - she was just too powerful. I know you’re special or whatever, but…”

“I’m not special, not any more. I can’t reach any of my Personas even if I wanted to.”

“...well, there you go,” Chie said, giving him a crooked smile; she patted his shoulder in a conciliatory gesture. “Just take care of yourself, Souji-kun. It’s better that way.” The look in her eyes was haunted, and Souji’s heart sank even further. He couldn’t imagine Chie backing down even in the face of the apocalypse, and yet… 

“What about you? I won’t leave my friends again.” He gave Chie an earnest look. “And… you don’t have to hide it. I already know about the… the Shadow thing. Take care of yourself too, okay?”

“I-I... um…” The tension in her limbs increased, as if she were exerting more effort to keep her Shadow features concealed. Then she sighed and released her control. “Okay.” 

Now that he had Yosuke’s Shadow form as an example, Souji could see the strange logic behind Chie’s features. Horns extended from her head, one on each side and a swept-back protrusion from the center of her scalp, creating a silhouette reminiscent of Suzuka Gongen. Pointed black scales flowed down her bare arms, with even larger scales growing out from beneath her tattered uniform skirt - similar to her Persona’s armored appearance, if given a feral twist.

The biggest change, though, was her legs. Chie winced and shook out one foot as the bone structure changed, shifting to a digitigrade stance, her feet sprouting blunt talons and gaining in mass until they resembled the wickedly powerful feet some of Souji’s draconic Personas possessed. “I bet you can _really_ kick things with those,” Souji said weakly.

Chie gave him a sad smile. “Dragon kick, right? That stupid goddess has a sick sense of humor.” She shook her head, her smile vanishing. “Come on.”

“What about Yosuke?” He couldn’t hear any yelling from above any more - hopefully the other boy had managed to escape.

Chie rolled her eyes. “Oh, he’ll be fine, at least until I punch him for getting Yuki all riled up.” She hesitated, then took a step in the general direction of the Inn. “Come on,” she repeated. “It’ll make it easier if you can see what I’m talking about.”

“Okay,” Souji said, coming up to stand at her side, following as she headed towards the Inn. “Are you both staying here right now?” he asked, after a moment. 

Chie sighed raggedly. “Yeah. You could say that.” They reached the back gate and Chie reached for the latch. “Make sure you don’t let any of them out, okay? And don’t attack them.”

“Let any of what out?” Souji asked, but Chie just opened the gate a little and gestured for Souji to go through. He squeezed through the gap as best he could, then froze.

The Inn’s courtyard was full of Shadows.

They were all the vaguely-humanoid type, and Souji tensed sharply, but none of them so much as looked in his direction. A moment later Chie came through and closed the gate behind her, the latch falling into place with a heavy _thunk._

“Chie, these Shadows…” 

Chie heaved another sigh. “Yeah. You’ve seen these, right? They’re… well, what’s left. Of people.” Her voice was toneless, the horror of the sight long since ground out of her.

Souji looked away. “Yeah. I went to my uncle’s house-” The lump in his throat rose again, and he swallowed hard, pushing the grief away. 

“Oh no,” Chie whispered. “I-I’m sorry, Souji-kun…”

“I did what had to be done,” Souji replied, closing his eyes tightly for a moment against the sting of tears. “Please, keep going,” he managed.

“O-okay.” Chie took a few steps into the courtyard; it had once been a beautiful place, delicately maintained in classic style, but the smaller trees had already rotted through and a slick black goo coated the surface of the koi pond. “These, um, these are ours, I guess. Or Yuki’s, anyway. Some of them were guests, but most of them were the staff and, well, Yukiko’s family.” She spoke quickly, as if she were afraid to linger on the words too long. “I can’t really tell them apart. Yuki can, or she thinks she can, anyway.” 

Souji pivoted to look at all the Shadows. Most of them were moving in a vaguely purposeful way. “They don’t attack you?”

Chie shook her head. “No. We kind of scared that out of them, I guess. Yuki says it’s because they remember who we are, and…” She rubbed at her eyes with the heel of one hand. “I just… _god,_ Souji-kun, I don’t think they do, but she won’t give up, and I… I’m scared she’s going to just lose it, and if she does I don’t know what I’m going to do!” Her shoulders shook. “We keep them all here, we make sure none of them go wandering around where we could lose them or worse, and Yuki… she talks to them, she tries to teach them how to sweep or cook or do whatever it is they used to do, but it’s like she’s talking to ghosts-” 

She crumpled, falling to her knees, and Souji hurried to crouch at her side as guilt gnawed at him again. Of course Chie would think herself useless in the face of an opponent she couldn’t fight; no wonder everything had drained out of her. “Chie... “ he said quietly, past the lump in his throat. “I’m so sorry, Chie. Is there anything I can do?”

She just blinked up at him, her eyes flickering through the tears. “I don’t know,” she said, her voice shaking. “I just… I feel like all I can do is keep them all safe, try and take care of Yuki, day in, day out, always the same thing... always _oh, Chie, I think she looked up when I said her name!_ or _Chie, he swept the whole room and only missed a few spots!_ and she’s _wrong_ and I just… I can’t tell her, I can’t do it…”

“Do you think she would talk to me?” Souji said, after a moment. He didn’t really have a plan in mind, but it wasn’t in him to leave after everything Chie had poured out to him. “Maybe I can help a little bit. I’m not sure, but…”

Chie sighed raggedly. “You could hardly make it worse,” she said, wiping at her face. “She really went unhinged when you guys were coming up the main walk - I don’t think she even realized who you were. But she should have had time to calm down by now. Maybe when she realizes you’re back… well, I can take you up there, I guess.”

“Up there?”

She nodded and got to her feet. “Yeah. She… um, she likes to perch up on the roof, at the very top of the Inn. She’s probably up there now. There’s a maintenance ladder - you just gotta be careful.”

“I’ll do my best,” Souji promised, standing up as well. “I don’t know if it’ll help at all, but I can try.” _Do my best, try_ \- the words felt bitter and empty after his fight with Yosuke, and yet he kept saying them. He didn’t know what choice he had. 

“Okay,” Chie said. “I… I appreciate you trying, anyway.” She headed for the Inn proper, threading through the Shadows. Souji followed, glancing up towards the roof and trying vainly to see through the fog. If Yukiko was up there, he couldn’t see her.

He wondered if she could see him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, some bonus material!
> 
> [Shadow Fusion](http://ikuze-aibou.tumblr.com/post/99618753906/in-shadows-rise-bonus-material-shadow-fusion): What exactly are we doing to the poor Investigation Team? We wrote out everything about Shadow fusion and the various forms the characters can take here for your infodump-perusing pleasure. 
> 
> Also, we will be revealing our design sketches and notes on the characters' Shadow forms as we encounter them from now on. Please note that we are not artists, but we sketched as best we could!
> 
> [Shadow Fusion Yosuke](http://ikuze-aibou.tumblr.com/post/99619848406/in-shadows-rise-bonus-material-shadow-fusion-yosuke)
> 
> [Shadow Fusion Chie](http://ikuze-aibou.tumblr.com/post/99620727626/in-shadows-rise-bonus-material-shadow-fusion-chie)
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	10. Catharsis

Chie led him through the Inn, pausing every so often to allow a Shadow to shuffle past, following the routine it had forged in life. The unceasing fog had worked a sour mustiness into everything, leaving the floors creaking unpleasantly and the remaining shoji screens sagging in their frames. As Chie climbed the first set of stairs, one of the steps gave beneath her, breaking with a rotten sound. She recovered easily, rocking back and grabbing hold of the bannister before giving the broken star a dismal look. “Man, the place is really starting to go.”

“Izanami’s influence works so quickly,” Souji murmured. “It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week.” 

Chie gave him a strange look. “A week? What are you talking about?” 

“Since I left? Since all this started, I guess?” Souji said, though the expression on her face made him uneasy. “...It was a week ago, wasn’t it?”

Chie shook her head. “I mean, uh, I haven’t been keeping really close track of time, but it’s been months at least.” She frowned, thinking. “Definitely much, much more than a week, anyway.”

Souji felt a chill go through him. It made a strange sort of sense - time had always ran a little strangely inside the TV, like there was a disconnect between how much time they spent inside and how much had actually elapsed once they went home. Still… “Months,” he repeated. 

“Yeah. If it had only been a week… yeah, we’d all be total wrecks, even worse than we are now.” Chie chuckled shakily. 

Souji closed his eyes for a moment. “Okay,” he said slowly. No wonder things had deteriorated the way they had; no wonder Yosuke had been so angry and Chie so weary. He couldn’t help but wonder how much time had elapsed outside the fog, if his parents thought he was dead or if they even remembered that they had a son. He shuddered. 

Chie shifted uncomfortably. “You okay?”

“It’s only been a week since I left Inaba, Chie…”

“Wait. A week? But…” Her breath caught in her throat, and she was silent for a long moment. “Maybe that’s why,” she managed at last. “Why nobody came, why nobody noticed what’s been happening here... “ Her shoulders hitched and she bowed her head. “When this first happened I… I thought surely somebody would notice, something would happen and somebody would come for us and stop this, the police or the government or _somebody_ , but…”

Souji felt vaguely ill. “They probably don’t remember,” he admitted. “I came back because… because I was the only one who knew Inaba had ever existed. My mother was even starting to forget about-” He swallowed. “Well, that’s why I came back.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug, carefully avoiding her horns. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sorry you had to face this alone for so long.” 

They stood there together for a long moment before Chie let out a shaky sigh and stepped away, wiping at her eyes. “Well, I’m glad you’re here now, at least,” she said, giving Souji a watery smile. “C’mon, it’s this way.”

Souji kept quiet as they kept walking, still trying to absorb the implications. Chie didn’t seem inclined to start up a new conversation, either. By the time they’d ascended to the Inn’s top floor, she looked utterly resigned, as if Souji’s earlier revelation had drained her even more. “The ladder’s out here,” she said, opening the door to what ended up being a storage room, filled with furniture covered in dusty cloth. Like all the actual guest rooms on the upper floor, the storage room had a sliding door in the outer wall that led to a private balcony. There was a wooden ladder there leading up to the roof, presumably so it would be easier to fix broken roof tiles or unclog the gutters. “Let me go first,” Chie continued, taking hold of the rungs. 

Souji waited in silence as Chie climbed up; he could see the underside of the roof from here, but beyond that was only fog. The entire Inn seemed wrapped in it, the surrounding trees reduced to smudged silhouettes. He shivered as he heard the distinctive slither-slide of a Shadow in the hallway. 

After a moment, he heard Chie’s talons clatter on the roof. “Come on up,” she called, pitching her voice low. “Just go slowly, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied, taking a deep breath before climbing the ladder himself. It was utterly surreal, like ascending into a cloud; when he glanced down he couldn’t see the ground, just fog, and had to fight away a brief surge of instinctive panic. He had to pause at the top before he could make himself let go of the ladder and climb onto the roof proper. The roof was gently sloped, with a long spine of rounded tiles running down the peak, and he could see two dark shapes a few meters away.

At the sound of his foot hitting the first tile, one of the shapes whirled, a swirl of fire burning away the fog around her. "Who is it?" Yukiko said sharply, her voice shaking. "Chie? Who is it?"

"Yuki, it's Souji," Chie said, carefully; she was standing next to Yukiko, one hand resting on her best friend’s shoulder. "He's not like us, so be careful, okay?"

"Souji-kun?" The name ended in a strangled sound, and Souji winced. He carefully stepped forward, spreading his arms for balance.

"It's me, Yukiko," he called. "I... I came back. To help."

"Souji-kun," Yukiko said slowly, then laughed, a low and helpless sound. He could see her clearly now, perched on the crest of the roof - and perched was the right word for it. Her human feet were gone, transformed into birdlike talons, and great wings stretched from her back, every feather like a mirror. The resemblance to both Amaterasu and Yukiko’s original Shadow didn't surprise Souji in the least. Every so often flame seemed to dance at the feathers’ tips. 

Unlike the other two, Yukiko didn't seem concerned about Souji seeing her Shadow form. She turned to face him as he came closer, and he saw more silvery feathers peeking out of her hair, fanning from her temples. Luminescent flecks patterned her skin, echoing her Persona's constant glow. "It _is_ you," she murmured. "Why are you here?"

Chie squeezed Yukiko’s shoulder, then stepped away. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she said quietly, padding past Souji to the ladder. The rungs creaked again as she descended. 

"I came to see you,” he said after a moment. “I'm sorry for..." _Everything._ He swallowed. "...for worrying you before. I'm not here to hurt any of your family." He sat down carefully, balancing on the peak of the roof. 

She folded her wings around her shoulders like a cloak, and the flames at the tips faded and died. "I know. I know you wouldn't do that. I didn't know it was you. I never thought you - anyone - would ever come here. Not for me. Not for anyone."

He could hear Chie’s muffled footsteps on the balcony below - just listening, for now, pacing a bit by the sound of it. "You're protecting the Inn," he said. 

"Of course I am," Yukiko said. "I have to protect them. It's all I have left. It's all I've ever had. I... I chose this. You helped me see that. So here I am." She stared into the fog as if searching for potential threats. 

He didn’t know what to do, what to say; he had a hundred ideas, but none of them felt right. Thankfully, Yukiko herself broke the silence after a long moment. “Did Chie show you the others?”

“The others? You mean the Sh- your family?” 

“Yes.” She shifted a bit, moving her weight from foot to foot. “I’ve been healing them every day, Souji-kun, every single one of them. It’s tiring, but I think it’s helping - this morning, Mother turned and looked at me when I called out to her, and I think she really listened! She’s getting better, she’s…” Her words stumbled to an aching halt. “I’m not strong enough to use the most powerful spells on everyone, but her and Father, I’ve been doing everything I can, and… I’m sure it’s going to work.” She took a long, shaky breath. “It’s going to work, right, Souji-kun?”

The question was quavery, desperate, and Souji didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

“O-oh.” Yukiko sagged.

Souji turned away to look out over the fog-shrouded garden. It took him a moment to be able to force more words past the pain in his throat. "When I got here, I… I went home. I found my uncle, or what was left of him." Yukiko took a sharply indrawn breath, but Souji kept going, because if he stopped he wasn’t sure he’d be able to start again. "He only remembered one thing. He said... Nanako’s name. Over and over, he said her name." His voice cracked, and he swallowed hard. "But I don't... I really don't think there was a _person_ in there any more, Yukiko. And what was left was so... so broken, so confused. He attacked me, and..."

His words trailed off, and silence enveloped them for a long moment until Yukiko spoke. "What did you do?" Her voice was trembling, and Souji heard the rustle of her feathers. Below them, the sound of Chie’s pacing stopped. 

"I killed him." Souji buried his face in his hands. "There was nothing else I could do…" Grief took hold of him again, and he shook with the force of it. After a moment, he heard a scraping sound and a soft shadow fell over him. He looked up through his tears to see the arch of Yukiko's wing.

“I don’t know if I did the right thing, I just… I don’t know. I don’t know,” he whispered. “He attacked me, but… I don’t know if I killed him for _nothing_ or if there was anything of him left at all other than Nanako’s name… _god,_ I’m so sorry, Yukiko, I’m so sorry-” His throat closed up, and he turned his face into her silvery feathers and gave in to that overwhelming sorrow.

He wasn't sure for how long they stayed like that, her wing wrapped around him as he sobbed, guilt and grief choking him and pouring out in ugly tears. After a long while, though, the tears subsided, and Souji realized he’d ended up curled against Yukiko’s side, sheltered under her feathers. “Yukiko…”

She took a deep breath, and he felt it shudder through her. “Do you regret it?” she asked, her voice so low it was barely audible. “Do you regret what you… what you had to do?”

“I regret leaving Inaba in the first place," he managed, a thread of self-loathing creeping into the words. "But my uncle...“ He felt hollowed out, as if something foul inside him had been purged, leaving him exhausted but somehow clearer than he had been. “I think, I _hope_ I was able to… to give him peace. So he wouldn’t have to wander forever looking for Nanako and never finding her.” He wiped at his face. “I hope… _god,_ I hope it’s better this way.”

She trembled, then shifted, and he had to sit up quickly as she folded her wing down around herself. "He was suffering,” she whispered. “So it was better for that to end, wasn’t it? It had to be better.” Her voice shook. “And my family, they’re… they’re suffering too, aren’t they? Souji-kun, I… I’ve been working so hard for so long, trying to help them, and… it’s not working, it’s just not _working-_ "

He heard a sudden sharp scrabble on the tiles. "Yuki-" Chie emerged from the fog, heaving herself onto the roof and hurrying to Yukiko’s side. "Yuki..."

"Chie," Yukiko sniffled, stretching out one wing and using it to guide Chie to her, folding her pinions around them both. "Chie, they're... they're _gone,_ aren't they?"

"Y-yeah," came Chie's muffled voice from within the circle of Yukiko's wings. "Yuki, I'm _sorry,_ I-"

"No.... no," Yukiko managed. "Chie, I always... I _knew_ , I just... I didn't want to admit it, that I'd failed them, I couldn't fix it, I-" Her words devolved into racking sobs, and some of the roof tiles shattered under her contracting talons.

Souji slowly got to his feet and walked back to the ladder, wanting to give them some privacy - but before he could step onto the ladder's top rung, Yukiko called his name. He looked up to see them standing together, both their faces streaked with tears. "Souji-kun," Yukiko repeated. " _Thank you._ "

And Souji nearly lost his grip on the ladder as something within him flared, something shining and bright and familiar, something that smelled like woodsmoke and felt like restoration and tasted, bizarrely, of those terrible box lunches. A moment later there was a sheltering wing behind him, keeping him away from the drop. "Souji-kun? Are you all right?"

"Yes," Souji said, stunned, the High Priestess arcana singing within him.

"What do we do now, Yukiko?" Chie asked, tentative, as if she feared Yukiko's newfound clarity could melt away at any instant.

Yukiko took a deep breath; Souji could feel her shaking again, but there was determination in her now. "We give them peace," she whispered, wiping her eyes. "Whatever it takes, we give them peace. We set them free."

“Yuki...” Chie breathed, burying her head against Yukiko’s shoulder. Yukiko embraced her, and as she did she changed form - not into something more monstrous, but into something less. Her avian legs cracked back into humanoid ones, though the thick claws jutting from her toes remained, and the faint halo of flame around her wings vanished entirely. After a moment, Chie tilted her head up and kissed Yukiko, soft and sweet. Souji blinked, then smiled wearily. That… wasn’t exactly surprising, actually. And it was good, _good_ to see things like that here, persisting despite the ruins around them… 

Maybe they weren’t completely helpless after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus art for this chapter: [Shadow Fusion Yukiko](http://ikuze-aibou.tumblr.com/post/99969319491/in-shadows-rise-bonus-material-shadow-fusion-yukiko)!


	11. Burn

“Let’s burn it,” Yukiko said abruptly.

The three of them had returned to the courtyard. Yosuke was nowhere to be seen, and Souji wondered if the other boy had left entirely. The Shadows shambling around them didn’t react at all to Yukiko’s words, but Chie took a sharply indrawn breath. “Burn it?”

Yukiko hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. It will be a clean ending. Fire purifies, doesn’t it?” Her mirrored feathers ruffled a bit, but Souji could see her determination. “I don’t… I don’t think I can stay here anymore. Isn’t it better to let it burn instead of leaving it to rot?”

“If you’re sure, Yuki,” Chie said, reaching for Yukiko’s hand and squeezing gently.

“I’m sure,” Yukiko confirmed, letting out a long breath. “We should get everything we think we’ll need.”

“I’ll see if I can find Yosuke,” Souji volunteered.

“Yosuke… right, I chased him around earlier, didn’t I? I think I set his tail on fire.” Yukiko didn’t sound apologetic at all, which made Souji smile despite himself. This was the Yukiko he knew, gentleness over an iron core. “After you find him, will you help us take care of things here?”

“Of course.” He nodded to them both. “I’ll do whatever I can.” Yukiko smiled at him, and he felt the Personas echo her gratitude, their presence made more intense by their temporary absence. “Though I think you’ll have to handle the fire.”

“I will,” Yukiko said, resolute. 

Chie had a vaguely dazed expression on her face, as if she couldn’t quite believe the plans they were making. “Yuki, are you _sure?”_

“Chie…” Yukiko turned towards her, and they moved a short distance away, talking in low tones; Souji hesitated, then headed for the main gate. This decision was theirs to make, not his.

Souji opened the gate and closed it carefully behind him, making sure that none of the Shadows slipped out. He took a few wary steps forward, realizing belatedly that he didn’t have anyone to protect him from other Shadows at the moment. “Yosuke? Are you out here?” he called, drawing his sword as he headed towards the road.

He heard a rustling sound to the side and whirled; a moment later Yosuke dropped down out of one of the bigger trees, his eyes gleaming yellow through the fog. “Took you long enough,” he grumbled. “Are you done?”

“Not exactly,” Souji admitted, sheathing his sword again. Yosuke folded his arms, his mouth tightening. “Yukiko’s decided to leave the Inn.”

Yosuke stared at him. “What?”

“They’re both going to leave, actually. Yukiko is going to burn the Inn,” Souji explained, and as he spoke he felt felt the warmth of the newly-awakened Personas bloom inside him once more.

Yosuke’s expression was absolutely incredulous. “She _what?_ You couldn’t pry her out of there with a crowbar this morning, and now she’s going to burn it down? What the fuck did you _do?”_

“I didn’t really do anything,” Souji said. “Talked some, I guess. And cried.” He glanced away for a moment. “Maybe that helped her, I don’t know, but Yukiko made her own decision. I didn’t have anything to do with it other than being there.”

Yosuke looked like he was caught somewhere between wonder and annoyance. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered, his voice so quiet that Souji wondered if he’d meant to say the words aloud. “This doesn’t change anything,” he added sharply, taking a step towards Souji. “Things still aren’t okay, understand?”

“I understand.” Souji met Yosuke’s gaze. “I’ll go with Chie and Yukiko if you want me to. You can leave my stuff on the front steps.”

Yosuke was silent for a long moment, the tip of his tail twitching in what Souji thought might be agitation, though Souji tried not to assume that Yosuke’s Shadow features used feline-esque body language. “I don’t know,” he mumbled, finally. “I just… I don’t know, okay?” He gave Souji a belligerent look. “Just do whatever else you have to do here and we’ll see what happens.”

“Okay,” Souji agreed, tiredly. 

Yosuke gave him a long, narrow-eyed look. “Fine,” he said at last. “Go do… whatever.” He punctuated the sentence by jumping up to grab one of the overhanging tree branches with both hands, pulling himself up.

Souji just nodded and headed back to the Inn, aware of Yosuke’s gaze on him the whole way. 

…………

Chie and Yukiko’s preparations took some time - there was packing, of course, and ensuring that all the Shadows were inside the Inn. And saying goodbyes, though Souji waited quietly outside for that part. Chie had done her best to turn the Inn into a pyre, opening the upper windows and splashing around every bit of oil or other flammable accelerant she could find. The environs were sodden enough that there was little chance of anything catching on fire accidentally, at least. 

By the time they finished, the light outside was beginning to dim. Night was falling somewhere beyond the fog. The three of them gathered in front of the Inn, standing on the gravel walk; Souji wasn’t sure where Yosuke was, but that wasn’t important, not right now. Yukiko took a few steps forward. “I think… I think it’s time,” she said, her wings rustling with nervousness.

“Go,” Chie said quietly. Yukiko turned, and their eyes met for a moment before Chie nodded, once.

Yukiko took a long shaky breath before nodding back at Chie and unfurling her wings in one sharp movement. She crouched, trembling, then launched herself into the air, and Souji had to bring up one arm to shield his face from the powerful backdraft of her wings.

Chie was practically vibrating with tension, her hands clasped in front of her as she tracked Yukiko’s flight. Her mouth was moving slightly, though Souji couldn’t make out any actual words.

And then the first flame blossomed, searing away the fog.

Souji moved to stand next to Chie, his heart in his throat as the Amagi Inn caught fire. Yukiko’s power was more than a match for the ingrained dampness of the fog. He could see her through the evaporating fog, a winged silhouette soaring above the Inn, flames falling away from her in a flickering stream. _Fire purifies,_ Souji thought, and hoped it was true.

Next to him, Chie muffled a sob. There was grief in the sound, yes, but also a profound relief; an ending, yes, but also a beginning. Souji bowed his head and whispered a prayer for the dead as the fire began to rage in earnest, sparks rising into the air. _Rest and be at peace._

Yukiko wheeled above the Inn, riding the thermals, smoke mingling with the remains of the fog. All the buildings were burning now, an inferno well beyond their power to stop. A few more flames cascaded down, and then Yukiko was diving towards them, coming to a stumbling landing a few feet away, tears streaking down her cheeks. She opened her mouth in a long wail and Chie ran to her side, holding Yukiko close as the other girl collapsed to her knees, sobbing. “Yuki-”

“It’s okay, it’s okay; I’m sorry, I’m _sorry_ ,” he heard Yukiko cry, wrapping her wings around Chie and holding her close. The firelight cast flickering shadows behind them. Chie was whispering soft words now, too quietly for Souji to hear. There was a sharp _crack_ as a roof fell in. 

Yukiko shifted, turning towards the Inn. “Goodbye,” she cried out, her voice cracking. “Goodbye…”

Chie was still holding Yukiko close, and she lifted her head just enough to meet Souji’s gaze. Her face was soggy with tears and she looked absolutely exhausted, but there was the very faintest smile on her face, soft and grateful. _Thank you,_ she mouthed.

And strength rose within him, courage and the desire to protect. The Chariot arcana awakened with a burst of adrenaline, and Souji stumbled back, reeling. Chie looked at him with concern but he waved her off and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. The newly-awakened Personas were clamoring inside him, all swift motion and a call to action, determination to win the battle. Souji clenched his fists at his sides. _I’ll do what I can to end this,_ he silently promised himself and the Personas, forcing himself to relax and bleed off some of the energy surging through him.

… he hadn’t realized how empty he’d become, that the re-igniting of these bonds could feel so all-encompassingly strong.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, keeping silent vigil over the pyre the Amagi Inn had become. The night seemed endless, time measured only by the increasing collapse of the Inn’s structures. The warmth of the blaze drove the fog back, and a few times Souji thought he caught a glimpse of stars above them, though they might have just been more rising sparks. 

But eventually the adrenaline waned, his focus fading along with it. Despite his desire to keep watch along with Chie and Yukiko, Souji found himself drifting, nearly falling asleep several times. At last he gave in, quietly moving to curl up underneath a tree a short distance away, far enough from the fire to be safe but close enough to catch a little bit of warmth. 

He was asleep almost before he closed his eyes, his last impression that of Chie and Yukiko’s silhouettes against the firelight, resolute and unwavering.


End file.
